PeaceBang

More on Kwan

Now here’s a girl I like:

http://moxie.nu/moveabletype/archives/003441.php

Our blogs were cited side by side here,
http://blog.blogpulse.com/
with mine as the “pro-Kwan” blog and hers the “not so kind to Kwan” one.

I agree with Ms. Moxie that Kwan wasn’t the greatest artist on the ice. She’s right: when the media claims an Olympic darling, it’s hard to slide out of the room with your drink in your hand and the integrity of your opinions intact.

Michelle Kwan wasn’t my darling, though, and I didn’t even love her skating. In fact, after watching the couples skate the other night, I think that all figure skating has become mechanistic and freaky. I still watch it and cling to the hopes that I might catch a performance like Brian Boitano gave when he won the gold in Calgary in 1988. Remember the Battle of the Brians? I think that was also the year that the women’s competition saw the likes of Katarina Witt (whose choice to skate to “Carmen” was so wrong, unless you can picture the fiery Spanish siren as a stern, monobrowed Cherman lass) and the plumb crazy Surya Bonaly, who could do a backflip on the ice. The point is, it was fun, and the drama was not only off the ice in the scores and the competitions between athletes, but on the ice, where it’s sorely lacking nowadays.

I don’t love Michelle Kwan as a skater — never did — but I admire her athleticism, her hard work, and her reputation as an emotionally stable, dedicated skater.